Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookie) Recipe

It’s COOKIE TIME. When Mr B told me that his work was having a Christmas potluck, the first thing I thought of was making cookies. Why? Because I love to bake, and I love eating cookies…a little bit TOO much. Last week I made a batch of thumbprint cookies in the evening and they were all gone by breakfast the next day. I knew if we continued like this I’d have to change the name of the blog from “Bears in France” to “Beach balls in France.” So, baking and sending them off sounded great to me.

I knew I didn’t want to attempt anything French, because there’d be plenty of that at the potluck. Maybe something Mexican? I knew that would be different. So I scoured the internet looking for recipes (my fam’s not big on baking) and kept finding “Mexican Wedding Cookies.” What the heck are those? I’m pretty sure I’ve been to mexican weddings and they didn’t have whatever those were. Mexicans eat cake at weddings (sometimes tres leches cake…I *drool*). But then, when I looked more closely at the recipe, I realized they were polvorones! These I knew, and these I love. They are pretty similar to these tiny cookies sold in my parent’s hometown in Mexico. Super tiny, nutty cookies. I’m pretty sure those cookies use walnuts or pecans in the mix, but ground almonds were cheaper here, so that’s what I picked 😛

Bonus! There’s no egg in these, and if you substitute margarine for butter, like I did – they’ll be vegan.

This is the recipe I based mine on. I tweaked it a bit, and it came out pretty well if I do say so myself.

Polvorones

Do not attempt to lick your screen

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

225 g (2 sticks) of butter or margarine, melted.

110 g (1.5 cups) ground almonds

250 g (2 cups) all purpose flour

10 g (2 tsp) vanilla extract

ground cinnamon

powdered sugar

Combine cooled melted butter and sugar. Cream together. If doing by hand, try to add a lot of air. Add in vanilla extract, then flour a little at a time, and then ground nuts. Mix until completely incorporated.

I whipped the butter and sugar vigorously until it became thick and creamy

Adding in the ground nuts

Place in fridge overnight.

(The next day) Preheat oven to 325. Working quickly, take your chilled dough and roll into small balls. Place these on parchment paper and bake for about 18 minutes.

I was already drooling

Remove from oven and let cool for 3-4 minutes, or until you can handle the cookies.

Mix powdered sugar and cinnamon and toss slightly warm cookies in the mix. It should stick. You can toss them in sugar a second time before serving. It should stick even better the second time. Buen provecho!

Notes: The cinnamon is optional, but I think that’s what really made these taste Mexican to me. Cinnamon and sugar are so good together! It’s like topping your cookies with churro/horchata goodness (K, maybe I’m reaching here). If you use softened butter and an electric mixer these will probably stay rounder. I wanted mine to spread a little bit this time, so I used melted butter. Make sure you let these chill! It might help to take out only some of the dough and work on it a little at a time, so that everything doesn’t get warm.

I think these are some of the yummiest and easiest cookies I’ve made, so I hope someone out there tries them.

What’s your favorite holiday cookie? These are shaping up to be mine. 😛